Many modern devices employ radio frequency (RF) devices or integrated circuits (ICs), such as RF power devices, to transmit signals through the air. Such RF devices often have two or more input/output paths. For example, one input signal might be amplified by two or more different amplification factors to produce two or more separate output signals; two or more input signals might be separately amplified (by the same or a different application factor), and added together to produce a single output signal; or some combination of two or more signals could be amplified (by the same or a different application factor), and combined in some fashion to generate two or more output signals.
When a device has multiple amplification paths, it is generally preferable that they have fundamental characteristics (e.g., Vth, gate length, Cd5, Cgs, passive matching elements, etc.) that are as close to identical as possible. This typically means that the two paths must be fabricated on the same wafer die. Since many different variations of implication paths are required for the variety of devices manufactured, it is generally necessary to manufacture a wide variety of dies, each including one particular implementation (i.e., one particular set of multiple paths).
For example, one device might need two amplification paths, each providing 7.5 W of amplification; another device might need two application paths, one providing 7.5 W of amplification and the other providing 15 W of amplification; and another device might require two amplification paths each providing 15 W amplification. A manufacturer looking to manufacture these three devices would have to design and produce three separate die blocks, each with its own inherent design, testing, and production requirement. Making all of these individual die blocks, with all of the required variations of multiple implementations, is expensive and time-consuming.
Furthermore, when wafers are designed with “paired” dies of different power levels, probe and yield issues can arise. In addition, multi-path RF devices require sufficient isolation between the multiple paths so that drive charges on one path will cause only minimal changes to adjacent or nearby paths.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a single, configurable multipath die block that allows a single die, provided in a single RF package, to be used in multiple power/architecture arrangements.